At the time of his death, Hugh Dinwiddy was the last person to have played first-class cricket with both Don Bradman and Jack Hobbs, as well as the oldest surviving Kent cricketer. A right-hand batsman and legbreak/googly bowler, as well as a superb cover point, Dunwiddy's career consisted of five matches for Cambridge University and ten for Kent, all coming between 1933 and 1935.

He was included in the Kent side in July 1933 after a double hundred for the 2nd XI against Devon, and in his second first-class game he scored a career-best 45 against Surrey at Blackheath. In that game Hobbs, who was 50 and in his penultimate season, scored a hundred. Dinwiddy later recalled that "Hobbs was very kind to me and wished me luck".

The following season, in his second year at Cambridge, Dinwiddy broke into the XI for the match against the Australians in early May. Bradman, who had opened the tour with a double hundred at Worcester, made all the headlines when he was dismissed for a duck, but the Australians still closed the first day on 418 for 4. Dinwiddy made 0 and 2 as the students were routed by an innings and 163 runs. He described Bradman as "alright … he didn't say much to me".

His first-class career fizzled out in 1935 but he made more of a mark on the rugby field where he won Blues in 1934 and 1935 and was good enough to be given an England trial in 1936.

In an interview with Derek Barnard in 2004, Dinwiddy admitted that his first love was cricket and he wished he could have made his mark in the first-class game.

After Cambridge, he taught at Ampleforth College either side of serving with the Royal Navy and in 1956 he moved to Uganda where he helped establish Makerere University in Kampala, receiving an OBE for his efforts in 1971. He returned to England the previous year. Martin Williamson

ABOUT COOKIES

We use cookies to help make this website better, to improve our services and for advertising purposes. You can learn more about our use of cookies and change your browser settings in order to avoid cookies by clicking here. Otherwise, we'll assume you are OK to continue.